My mother and I have our own collections of Russian nesting dolls which seems to go back to our childhood days of stacking one inside the other. I love my nesting dolls on the left that represent the folktale of The Enormous Turnip and then the traditional nesting dolls that are featured in Corinne Demas Bliss' The Littlest Matryoshka.Most novice storytellers and writers tell the bare bones of a story very well but forget to add the richness of details to their rendition. The students often mixup the events in the story which becomes confusing to the listener. What better way to teach detail and sequential order but through the use of nesting dolls.

Introduction to lesson - Read the story The Littlest Matryoshka to your students and share out some cheap nesting toys that you have from home.Inquiring Question - How could these nesting dolls represent the story you are working on right now? Another question might be: If these dolls represented your story writing/storytelling process, how could they help you develop a story listeners would want to hear and see in their minds?

Kids responses have been:

* Stories start with a seed and grow the more I practice telling.*Stories have a big idea with details that support that big idea.*They remind me of a snowball that gets bigger and bigger the more it rolls on the snow.

I then ask for a volunteer to place the smallest doll into the next size doll, and so on until the largest doll is standing alone. I then ask the students to rethink what this doll with all the dolls in her stand for when it comes to crafting our stories either through writing or storytelling the bare bones:

Inquiring Question: What does this doll, with all the smaller dolls inside her, stand for when it comes to crafting your stories through writing or storytelling the bare bones?

Kids responses:*All of our details make up the story.*We can't forget to use our 5 senses ideas to make the story come alive.*etails are important to use in order to make sense of the story

Extensions: a. Tell the story of The Three Little Pigs out of sequential order and listen to responses from the listeners. Unorganized stories just confuse the listener. b. Tell the story of The Three Little Pigs as a bare bones story and ask the students to add details to make it more entertaining.c. Ask the students to look at their bare bone stories that they have collected on their index cards. Choose one of those stories to work on - add detail using the five senses. Make sure the events are in sequential order and the conclusion is strong.